IndiaSpend, 15 June 2022:

“About 1.6 billion children worldwide, including around 250 million in India, endured school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of school closures is now being better understood through surveys like the Union Ministry of Education’s National Achievement Survey (NAS). About 3.4 million students in 118,000 schools in 720 rural and urban districts were surveyed for NAS in November 2021, 1.5 years into the pandemic in India.

Education levels across India had gone down, more so in some areas and regions, and among children of particular grades, the survey found. Delhi, for instance, is among the five lowest-performing states for grade III, but did much better for grade VIII. Average performance came down from about 54% to 47% between 2017, when the last NAS was conducted, and 2021.

The survey points to both the problems and challenges posed by pandemic-related school closures, and pre-existing challenges which were exacerbated by the pandemic.”

Our 2021 laureate Dr Rukmini Banerji, CEO of Pratham Education Foundation, shared her insights on the pre-pandemic context of K-12 education in India and the way forward for educating our children, based on the NAS 2021 and Pratham’s Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) results. 

Read the full article here.